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Wait... The Hell!? This was for REAL!?
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Pretty much my reaction when Tsjoat told me about Dash Con.
Then I Googled it and got this:http://jezebel.com/the-tumblr-user-conv ... 1604571770 OMFG... Ladies and gentlemen... I have no words... 
I've been to badly run cons.... one example that sticks in mind literally has it's own version of Valve Time for when events will run and happen. But apparently, Dashcon takes the biscuit.
That- and a Tumblrcon... seriously? Especially with the whole 'each fandom has a committee' thing they had going, each one organising seperate fandom events and the like with no sense of where the buck stopped. It's hard to put together the pieces, but I figure having multiple different committees running the one convention is where things started going wrong. Because then you get people booking too many guests without control - along with someone being widely optimistic about attendees when pitching it to the hotel, then getting caught on the hook for the room allocation they failed to fill. (Oops). That, and aiming much too big, too early, with ticket prices that were way to high. Funnily, a convention can survive disorganisation. It can survive amateur mismanagement. It can tolerate anything so long as a venue is willing to have them, and enough people had a good enough time, that they're willing to par to attend next year. So long as people have a good time, conventions will survive. The most notorious example I can think of locally was the second Eirtakon. There was no licensed anime - because the committee member responsible forgot to send the request until a week beforehand and ADV liked a few months notice, at least. There were no traders present because some of their stock got stolen the previous year, and the one trader in the country willing to come had a clashing even in the UK.... so they added a Bring and Buy. There was no guest, because the society running it had to dip into the con budget to replace their anime library after some scrotes broke into their locker and stole it. It also ran 4 months late because a television studio overbooked the venue and took priority because television advertising was good for the university.... nerds weren't. And, at the end of the day, 90% of attendees had a great time inspite of everything because everyone wanted to be there and wanted it to happen because it was the only event of its kind nationally. Well, except for one little scrote of a kid who demanded his money back because he came second in the Yu-Gi-Oh tournament and didn't like the prize, having literally paid the con door fee solely to play Yu-Gi-Oh. But at the same time, it was awesome and accessible with a brilliant atmosphere, The next con- on schedule six months later - word of mouth was so positive, they actually ran out of pre-printed con-passes and I had to photocopy badges. Eirtakon 10 is happening this year. In a fucking stadium. But Dashcon's going to be a watchword for a long time. ________________________________ --m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig? 
Between this and Las Vegas Unicon last year, I'm really beginning to wonder if this is the first sign of the convention "bubble" beginning to pop.
Bare minimum, it's going to start getting harder for first year cons to get off the ground, particularly with regards to things like getting guests. I'm fully expecting acting agents to start recommending to their clients, "you know, it sounds good, but you'd better give them a year or so to make sure they're a worthy concern to actually be a guest at." With the facilities out there, expect hotels and convention centers to start tightening their requirements for conventions. In fact, I'd be surprised if we don't start finding some areas where the facilities will basically become impossible to book for the first year conventions, either outright, or via more onerous installment payment schemes. Heck, I'd recommend to anyone that, unless it's local or you know where they're getting their showrunners (hint: better have worked staff at other cons), to be very careful about first year cons. And for the record, I've attended two cons in Denver in their first year, Britannicon and Nan Desu Kan. Both rented incredibly modest digs (Britannicon at a small business conference hotel, Nan Desu at a student union facility). Both were well-run, but I understand that a number of their people "cut their teeth" with Mile Hi Con and StarFest/StarCon. They also had very reasonable expectations for starting out. Yes, Dartz, Dashcon's going to be a watchword. I'd be very unsurprised if, like LV Unicon, some conventions will again use it as impetus to take a good look at themselves to make sure they're not overreaching. -- "You know how parents tell you everything's going to fine, but you know they're lying to make you feel better? Everything's going to be fine." - The Doctor
I wouldn't call it a bursting bubble. Maybe a lot of individual bubbles being burst.
It's more that people are looking at the big longrunning ones and thinking that they have to have all the things the big cons offer - and if they do all that they'll get the big audiences straight off to pay for everything. Nobody's really growing an event, they're just kicking in at the start and hoping to begin big. Nobody really wants to grow a con anymore - They forget most of the Big ones started as Locals. The first convention I attended had maybe 300-400 at most, over the whole weekend. It wasn't just a year-1 con, it was Con 1, the first of it's kind. It started in a Student Union building too, hijacking various campus rooms for events. People forget that even the monster Otakon started with just 350 members - and it's taken 20 years to get as big as it has. While the ComicCon events have such a massive advertising push behind them to make them happen. It's not a Convention bubble bursting, as much as it's peoples expectations for their new con vastly exceeding reality, then being brought down with an expensive bump when it fails. Nobody has reasonable expectations for starting out anymore. ________________________________ --m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?
Contrast to San Japan here in San Antonio, TX. It really is a feather in the hat as far as anime conventions go.
Really, SA hasn't been the sort of place you'd think there'd be a major conclave of anime fans. The city is riddled with ghettos and barrios where people are more concerned with just scraping by than the latest spring anime releases. But somehow that's changed over the decade and San Japan reflects that. It's had some very humble beginnings where they willingly scaled back their first con from a three day event to single day gathering. Now they're in their seventh year and have four more planned out in advanced. They had almost 15,000 attendees this year, and every hotel in the area was completely booked - we had cheap motel rooms going for $300/night! Point is, I'm glad we have San Japan. It will help keep any Dash Cons at bay. :p Quote:Dartz wrote:Well, not nobody. Bronycon started out as a local NYC convention in 2011, with just around a hundred or so people. They're now expecting around eight to ten thousand for this year's con, down by Baltimore, I believe. It grew ludicrously fast, but it was grown. There's also Youmacon, a Detroit anime con, which started in 2005 with around a thousand members, and grew to around fourteen thousand attendees for last year's con. Drawncon started off last year with around a hundred guests, IIRC, and I know they needed to find a bigger venue, closer to Boston, for this year, so there's another. It is more of a selection bias, I think, as you are far more likely to hear about a con trying to go too big, too quickly and goes bust, than one that is successfully growing, but hasn't reached the national level yet. ----- Stand between the Silver Crystal and the Golden Sea. "Youngsters these days just have no appreciation for the magnificence of the legendary cucumber." --Krityan Elder, Tales of Vesperia. 
We have three small time cons here in Pensacola. Pensacon, (mid jan/feb) Paracon, (october sometime) and Fandom (early to mid November) all are less than 5 years old and growing like the proverbial weeds. In fact, Fandom is having to change venues this year because they have outgrown the student center at the college than hosted it. Pensacon is in its third year, maybe fourth and filled the civics center and the adjoining hotel reporting that friday and Saturday pass sales at over 12000 persons and sunday was packed as well. I think it depends on what your fanbase size is and if you show them a good time. Hell we even resurrected anime south out on the beach and they packed out.
Coming back to this, it looks like a local 1st year convention is going the Dashcon route in a big way.... Otakucon (No relation to the US monster, though they assure Otakon knows about them and 'approves' EDIT: Which now seems to be a mistruth) looks set to run in the middle of December, three weeks after the largest con of the year. With as many big-name guests as the largest con of the year, and a ticket price that's less than 2/3rds of the cost. (E20 a weekend, to the more normal E35 that cons seem to have settled on, like a group of local petrol stations matching prices. It was already looking to be a bit of a fail when people started wondering just how they were expecting to cover Venue, Guests and all the other ancillaries - especially since it doesn't seem to be attached to a college.
It's especially galling when there is evidence they probably can't. 5 years ago, the largest con in the country pulled in 6-700 people, and with a E20 ticket price and no cost for the venue because it was using a college venue at the time, could afford exactly 1 guest. The Otakucon crowd have to cover Venue, multiple guests and are running with a low ticket price and unless some tricky wizardry is happening I don't see how they're going to do it. And pointing this out, immediately had the Director (And PR specialist after their original PR guy was canned after 3 days, and Trade Liason) claiming harassment and [sic]'deformation', and threatening to make a complaint to the police. Before finally addressing and saying he'd pay for the whole convention from "his savings, like the big boys", and he'll "find a really good agent to get a voice actor to reduce their appearance fee". Those're actual quotes, and neither of them fill me with confidence. Being charitable, I might call them hopelessly naive.... being more cynical, they remind me of a certain someone who tried to burn the company I work for. This is, not to put a fine point on it, already shaping up to be a bit of a Charlie Foxtrot, and we're still three months away. There won't even be a ballpit. Correction....... now it appears there will be a ballpit after all, 'due to popular demand'. This is going to be embarrasing. ________________________________ --m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?
Oh man oh man oh man.... The schadenfreude... I'm gonna die from it...
EDIT: Just looked at their announcement on Facebook about the ballpit... apparently it is intentional homage to Dashcon's ballpit. *Muttley Snicker*
Yes. It's shaping up to be something of an omnishambles.
The worst part is, it'll probably make things harder for the other cons that are run by (reasonably) competent people. Because if it does implode gracelessly and leave people looking for money owed (In some cases a lot of money considering the travel distances) and the other usual messes failed cons leave behind, it's going to make it a lot harder for other Irish cons to encourage other guests to come over because it's a bit of a trip. ________________________________ --m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig? 
An Australian FIM Con imploded gracefully recently, so there's that, at least?
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.'' -- James Nicoll
Oh? Do tell. Controlled implosions such as this are just as interesting as the messy ones.
Well, AFAICT, they just couldn't sell enough tickets.
Here's their website. ''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.'' -- James Nicoll
That's a fairly classy way to bow out, actually... that's not so much an implosion and a calm dismantling.
I'm not sure why I'm revelling in so much Schadenfreude myself.... I should feel horrible. ________________________________ --m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?
On the other hand OZ ComicCon this year was in Brisbane for the first time (as well as Sydney and Melbourne as per the last couple of years) and did stupidly well - even though I felt there was way too much focus on merch. Basically, if you weren't there to buy merch or overpriced autographs then there was only the panels left. That said, the Panels were beyond epic and the CosPlayers were for a first time event at an extreme level of awesome.
There needs to be some sort of something else between merch and panels though, there really does. Edit: some workshops were available - if you'd paid for Platinum access. For the average reader/fan who doesn't have skills in those areas though, it wasn't worth the money.
Maybe they could do some workshops next year. Fans of any stripe would love an interactive workshop for any number of things - cosplay, prop making, photoshop, animation, writing, voice acting... many many possibilities.
Oh, and from what little I've seen, a Street Fighter/KoF/DoA/Melty Blood/Skull Girls/whatever tournement can be a serious crowd pleaser. |
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